Jeremiah - Lesson 5

• Chapter 1 began by establishing that Jeremiah was called by the LORD as a prophet in the days of the last few kings of Judah before their exile from Jerusalem. The kingdom from the North would bring the LORD’s judgment to Judah.

  • Chapter 2 The LORD speaks of Israel’s birth and relationship with Him and then her rejection of Him by embracing and actively seeking worship of false gods.

  • Chapter 3 Israel and Judah’s rejection of the LORD as their only God is compared to an unfaithful wife. The LORD still desires repentance for this sin. The LORD desires faithfulness in actions not in words alone.

  • Chapter 4 A call of repentance has been sent out to Judah and it has been rejected, as Judah still looks to others to save her from coming judgment and does not turn to the LORD.  The destruction of Judah in response to this rejection is done by the LORD--but not a complete destruction of Judah.

Jer. 5:1 “Roam to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
And look now and take note.
And seek in her op  en squares,
If you can find a man,
If there is one who does justice, who seeks truth,
Then I will pardon her.
Jer. 5:2  “And although they say, ‘As the LORD lives,’
Surely they swear falsely.”
Jer. 5:3  O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth?
You have smitten them,
But they did not weaken;
You have consumed them,
But they refused to take correction.
They have made their faces harder than rock;
They have refused to repent.

• Verse 1 The LORD says to search in Jerusalem for even one man who does justice or seeks for truth. If one man could be found the LORD would pardon Jerusalem.

  • This should bring to mind the words spoken from Abraham to God in Genesis 18.

Gen. 18:16 Then the men rose up from there, and looked down toward Sodom; and Abraham was walking with them to send them off.
Gen. 18:17 The LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do,
Gen. 18:18 since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed?
Gen. 18:19 “For I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him.”
Gen. 18:20 And the LORD said, “The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave.
Gen. 18:21 “I will go down now, and see if they have done entirely according to its outcry, which has come to Me; and if not, I will know.”
Gen. 18:22 Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, while Abraham was still standing before the LORD.
Gen. 18:23 Abraham came near and said, “Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?
Gen. 18:24 “Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will You indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it?
Gen. 18:25 “Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?”
Gen. 18:26 So the LORD said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place on their account.”
Gen. 18:27 And Abraham replied, “Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord, although I am but dust and ashes.
Gen. 18:28 “Suppose the fifty righteous are lacking five, will You destroy the whole city because of five?” And He said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.”
Gen. 18:29 He spoke to Him yet again and said, “Suppose forty are found there?” And He said, “I will not do it on account of the forty.”
Gen. 18:30 Then he said, “Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak; suppose thirty are found there?” And He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”
Gen. 18:31 And he said, “Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord; suppose twenty are found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it on account of the twenty.”
Gen. 18:32 Then he said, “Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak only this once; suppose ten are found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it on account of the ten.”

• Verse 20 The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and their sin is exceedingly grave.

  • Verse 23 Abraham surmises the LORD will find great wickedness and asks if He will judge the righteous along with the wicked.

  • Verse 25 Abraham declares the LORD is the Judge of all the earth and He can only deal justly.

    • Abraham negotiates from fifty righteous to only ten righteous needed for the LORD to call off His judgment. The LORD agrees if ten righteous are found then He will not bring judgment.

    • The LORD knew there were not ten righteous and that judgment would come on Sodom.

    • The judgment sent on Sodom was a complete destruction.

  • The LORD is more gracious in His dealings with Jerusalem as He says if only one who does justice and seeks for truth is found He will pardon Jerusalem.

  • The LORD knows the rebellion in Jerusalem and He will bring judgment.

  • The LORD has repeated several times that though He will judge His people He will not bring a complete judgment, unlike what was seen in earlier times like the ‘great flood’ and the destruction of Sodom.

2Pet. 2:4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;
2Pet. 2:5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;
2Pet. 2:6 and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter;

• These verses combine the judgment of the ancient world, or the flood, and the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah as examples of complete destruction.

  • Jer. 5:1 Makes the connection that when there is no repentance there will be judgment.

  • Verse 2 The LORD accuses the people of Jerusalem of speaking words and then following that with “As the LORD lives.”  They use these words to swear to things that are not true.

    • These have become just socially acceptable repeated words with no value attached to the meaning of the words.

    • A modern example can be seen in those who recite what is called the Lord’s Prayer and yet do not have any concept of what the words mean. They are just repeated words that make people feel better about themselves.   

  • Verse 3 The LORD desires to see truth spoken. The LORD has tried to warn them, but they have not changed their ways and have only hardened their hearts away from repentance.

Jer. 5:4 Then I said, “They are only the poor,
They are foolish;
For they do not know the way of the LORD
Or the ordinance of their God.
Jer. 5:5  “I will go to the great
And will speak to them,
For they know the way of the LORD
And the ordinance of their God.”
But they too, with one accord, have broken the yoke
And burst the bonds.
Jer. 5:6  Therefore a lion from the forest will slay them,
A wolf of the deserts will destroy them,
A leopard is watching their cities.
Everyone who goes out of them will be torn in pieces,
Because their transgressions are many,
Their apostasies are numerous.

• Verse 4-5 The LORD first began to reveal that those considered poor were without the knowledge of God’s ways; but then He looked at those who had knowledge of the ways of the LORD and yet were living the same as those who had not known His ways.

  • With great knowledge comes more responsibility to live out God’s ways and guilt when they are not lived out.

• Verse 6 Because there is no one with repentant hearts the LORD is sending judgment. They will die in the forests and the deserts and as they leave their cities.

  • Three predatory animals: a lion, wolf, and leopard are used to describe how judgment will come on Judah. The lion is known for its overwhelming power to bring down its prey. The wolf is known for the ability to tear apart its prey and the leopard is known for great speed in taking down its prey. The power and brutality and speed of the coming judgment on Judah is displayed here.

    • In Judah the apostasies are too great! Both in Sodom as well as Jerusalem there is a point in which the LORD has had enough.

Jer. 5:7 “Why should I pardon you?
Your sons have forsaken Me
And sworn by those who are not gods.
When I had fed them to the full,
They committed adultery
And trooped to the harlot’s house.
Jer. 5:8 “They were well-fed lusty horses,
Each one neighing after his neighbor’s wife.
Jer. 5:9 “Shall I not punish these people,” declares the LORD,
“And on a nation such as this
Shall I not avenge Myself?
Jer. 5:10 “Go up through her vine rows and destroy,
But do not execute a complete destruction;
Strip away her branches,
For they are not the LORD’S.
Jer. 5:11 “For the house of Israel and the house of Judah
Have dealt very treacherously with Me,” declares the LORD.
Jer. 5:12 They have lied about the LORD
And said, “Not He;
Misfortune will not come on us,
And we will not see sword or famine.
Jer. 5:13 “The prophets are as wind,
And the word is not in them.
Thus it will be done to them!”

• Verse 7 The LORD asks why a pardon from judgment would be asked for, as His sons have left Him and instead swear by false gods. The LORD provided but the false gods were given the credit for the blessings.

  • Verse 8 These people were given everything they needed and yet they looked at what others had with longing. The comparison to a horse being lusty alludes to the sex drive of the animal knowing no boundaries.

  • Verse 9 The LORD asks the people how they think the LORD cannot punish His people.

  • Verse 10 The picture of the commonly seen agriculture of the day is used when describing the vine rows being destroyed. That which was above the ground is removed not the plant below the ground--the root.

    • The repeated promise is that of not bringing a complete destruction of the LORD’s people.

  • Verse 11 The LORD brings His accusation now against both Israel and Judah as they have dealt in evil ways against their LORD.

  • Verse 12 The LORD describes exactly what His people did to Him: they lied about Him.

    • They said the LORD would not bring judgment in misfortune or war or famine on them.

    • They deny that He is LORD when they say such things.

  • The people of God had entered into a covenant with Him in the wilderness. The terms of the covenant were very clear. Follow the Law and receive blessing; or disobey the Law and there will be judgment.

  • When the people in Jeremiah’s day say judgment and misfortune won’t come, they are saying what is contrary to the revealed word of God to them.

• Verse 13 The LORD says the prophets’ words were like the wind with no substance of the LORD’s actual words to His people. They will be taken away just like the wind.

  • The word ‘ruah’ is translated as wind here, but in other places is translated as spirit, which can be seen as the LORD revealing the spirit of these men to be like wind and not the spirit of the LORD.

Jer. 5:14 Therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of hosts,
“Because you have spoken this word,
Behold, I am making My words in your mouth fire
And this people wood, and it will consume them.
Jer. 5:15 “Behold, I am bringing a nation against you from afar, O house of Israel,” declares the LORD.
“It is an enduring nation,
It is an ancient nation,
A nation whose language you do not know,
Nor can you understand what they say.
Jer. 5:16 “Their quiver is like an open grave,
All of them are mighty men.
Jer. 5:17 “They will devour your harvest and your food;
They will devour your sons and your daughters;
They will devour your flocks and your herds;
They will devour your vines and your fig trees;
They will demolish with the sword your fortified cities in which you trust.
Jer. 5:18 “Yet even in those days,” declares the LORD, “I will not make you a complete destruction.
Jer. 5:19 “It shall come about when they say, ‘Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us?’ then you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’

• Verse 14 The LORD said because they spoke words declaring judgment would not come those false words will be demonstrated as fire from their mouths. The picture here is like a dragon breathing out fire and burning what is in front of it. Their false words are what causes the destruction of the people to be so grievous. They do not take warning steps to avoid judgment.

  • It is like they silenced the tornado warning system, and the destruction will be great.

• Verse 15 The LORD declares He is the one bringing an ancient nation, speaking an unfamiliar language, against His people.

  • Verse 16 They will have an unquenchable desire for death, and they will all be warriors.

  • Verse 17 This nation will take everything Israel has: food, children, wealth and land including the cities they have relied on to protect them.

  • Verse 18 The LORD promises again He will not bring complete destruction on His people, like the complete destruction alluded to in chapter four of the flood event of Genesis and then the potential connection of the destruction of Sodom.

• There have been many people groups throughout the history of the world who have ceased to exist as a separate people. Two ironic examples would be the Babylonians and Assyrians that were used by God to bring judgment on His people, and no longer exist in our modern world as a distinct people group. This will never be the fate of Israel.

  • Verse 19 The LORD speaks poetic justice as He declares in answer to the question from His people as to why the LORD our God has brought this judgment against them. “You wanted to serve other gods in your land so I will now have you serve strangers outside your land.”

Jer. 5:20 “Declare this in the house of Jacob
And proclaim it in Judah, saying,
Jer. 5:21 ‘Now hear this, O foolish and senseless people,
Who have eyes but do not see;
Who have ears but do not hear.
Jer. 5:22 ‘Do you not fear Me?’ declares the LORD.
‘Do you not tremble in My presence?
For I have placed the sand as a boundary for the sea,
An eternal decree, so it cannot cross over it.
Though the waves toss, yet they cannot prevail;
Though they roar, yet they cannot cross over it.
Jer. 5:23 ‘But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;
They have turned aside and departed.
Jer. 5:24  ‘They do not say in their heart,
“Let us now fear the LORD our God,
Who gives rain in its season,
Both the autumn rain and the spring rain,
Who keeps for us
The appointed weeks of the harvest.”
Jer. 5:25  ‘Your iniquities have turned these away,
And your sins have withheld good from you.
Jer. 5:26  ‘For wicked men are found among My people,
They watch like fowlers lying in wait;
They set a trap,
They catch men.
Jer. 5:27  ‘Like a cage full of birds,
So their houses are full of deceit;
Therefore they have become great and rich.
Jer. 5:28  ‘They are fat, they are sleek,
They also excel in deeds of wickedness;
They do not plead the cause,
The cause of the orphan, that they may prosper;
And they do not defend the rights of the poor.

• Verse 20 The LORD tells Jeremiah to speak His words to Judah, using repetitive and strong words: Declare, Proclaim, Hear. There is a strong sense of the intensity the LORD desires Judah to hear and to understand His words.

  • Verse 21 The LORD says His people are foolish and senseless in that they have physical eyes and ears but they can’t truly see or hear the truth.

    • These are also words from Psalm 115.

Psa. 115:2 Why should the nations say,
“Where, now, is their God?”
Psa. 115:3 But our God is in the heavens;
He does whatever He pleases.
Psa. 115:4 Their idols are silver and gold,
The work of man’s hands.
Psa. 115:5 They have mouths, but they cannot speak;
They have eyes, but they cannot see;
Psa. 115:6 They have ears, but they cannot hear;
They have noses, but they cannot smell;
Psa. 115:7 They have hands, but they cannot feel;
They have feet, but they cannot walk;
They cannot make a sound with their throat.
Psa. 115:8 Those who make them will become like them,
Everyone who trusts in them.

• Those who make idols become like their idols.

  • In Jer. 5:21 The LORD says His people who have worshiped these idols have become like these idols.

• Verse 22 If this people knew truth they would fear and tremble in their current condition before the LORD.

  • The LORD uses the reality He has created in the natural world of sand as a barrier to water, being prevented from invading the land He has set aside.

  • The water will never prevail and come on the land because this is an eternal separation the LORD has established.

    • What the LORD separates from Himself can’t come to Him by its determined path.

• Verse 23-24 Judah has hardened their hearts to the LORD by not recognizing their need to fear rejecting this God who controls the rain that produces their physical provision of food.

  • Verse 25 The people’s sin has brought about a ceasing of the LORD’s provision of these life-sustaining rains.

    • The sin causing the LORD to remove these blessings from Judah is detailed in Hosea 2.

Hos. 2:8 “For she does not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the new wine and the oil,
And lavished on her silver and gold,
Which they used for Baal.
Hos. 2:9 “Therefore, I will take back My grain at harvest time
And My new wine in its season.
I will also take away My wool and My flax
Given to cover her nakedness.
Hos. 2:10 “And then I will uncover her lewdness
In the sight of her lovers,
And no one will rescue her out of My hand.
Hos. 2:11 “I will also put an end to all her gaiety,
Her feasts, her new moons, her sabbaths
And all her festal assemblies.

• Verse 8 The LORD’s people used His provision to worship Baal.

  • The LORD emphasized not only did His people not recognize everything was from Him, but they added insult by using what He provided to engage in their idolatry.

• Jer. 5:26 Wicked men are in the nation of Judah capturing the unsuspecting.

  • Verse 27 The picture of a bird cage overflowing with birds is used to demonstrate how their own houses are filled with an overflow of deceit.

    • A regular use of a bird cage would be with just the right number of birds for the size of the cage. When too many birds are put in there is chaos, too much waste, noise and disorder.

    • They have taken by deceit what is not theirs and lifted themselves into power and wealth.

• Verse 28 These wicked men do not provide for the orphans or protect the rights of the poor and this is described as excelling at wickedness. They take what should be given to the orphans and the poor for themselves.

  • In our day this is displayed in acts of organizations taking funds under the guise of helping the needy and yet when the truth is known, the money taken only enriches a few liars and charlatans.

Jer. 5:29 ‘Shall I not punish these people?’ declares the LORD,
‘On a nation such as this
Shall I not avenge Myself?’
Jer. 5:30  “An appalling and horrible thing
Has happened in the land:
Jer. 5:31 The prophets prophesy falsely,
And the priests rule on their own authority;
And My people love it so!
But what will you do at the end of it?

• Verse 29 The LORD says, “How can I not judge a people and a nation that does these things?”.

  • Verse 30-31 The LORD defines now what He calls an appalling and horrible thing and what meets this standard for the LORD is when the prophets lie to the people and the priests rule without God’s direction. The exclamation from the LORD is that His people love this state of events.

  • The scriptures tell us what it looks like for the prophets to lie to the people.

Lam. 2:14 Your prophets have seen for you
False and foolish visions;
And they have not exposed your iniquity
So as to restore you from captivity,
But they have seen for you false and misleading oracles.

• These prophets will not expose the people’s iniquity; they will not call out sin as sin to God’s people.

  • This is unfortunately what is going on within the confines of what is called the ‘church’ today.

  • Pastors avoid teaching biblical declarations about sin and God’s judgment and instead focus on what they describe as God’s love and tolerance of sin and on the individual’s positive attitude or what works they can do to be more righteous.

    • The responsibility of a prophet is to proclaim truth to God’s people.

2Pet. 1:20 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation,
2Pet. 1:21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
2Pet. 2:1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.
2Pet. 2:2 Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned;
2Pet. 2:3 and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

• Prophecy must come from God and not from the desire of any man. It must be separated from what a person desires to be true and rooted in what God declares to be true.

  • Peter includes here the impact of the false teachers.

    • These teachers will bring swift destruction upon themselves.

  • In Jeremiah’s time, the priests were to be the teachers of the law to the people.

    • Jeremiah says these priests were ruling by their own authority and not by God’s authority.

    • The way to lead by God’s authority is to rely on God’s word. What God has given in His word should be the template for all teachers to guide God’s people to God’s ways.

• In Jeremiah’s day, the people were worshipping other gods, contrary to God’s command, and it is clear the priests were not declaring what God had revealed in His Word to be the consequences of these actions.

  • God declared He would judge His people, yet the prophets and priests were complicit in declaring God’s judgment was not going to be brought to fruition on His people.

  • In Peter’s time, he says the false teachers will be led by their sensuality and greed.

    • This is sadly practiced in the church today and is practically plastered in our modern news headlines.

• There will be judgment brought on the false prophets and teachers in God’s timing.

  • The scriptures give clear delineation for how to test the spirit of prophets and teachers.

1John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
1John 4:2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;
1John 4:3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.

• Jesus Christ came in the flesh.

  • Jesus Christ was sent from God.

• Jer. 5:31 The conclusion is that God’s people love this false prophecy and false teaching. Instead of being repulsed by this repugnant teaching, they actually love this teaching.

  • This teaching gives encouragement to embrace or minimize sin and its impact, instead of drawing God’s people to a conviction and repentance of sin.

  • Self-delusion is a common response from the heart of all men but when left in this unsaved and unregenerated state, it is devastating to that person and the world around him.

    • Only the Holy Spirit can bring a person to know and love truth.

1Cor. 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,
1Cor. 2:13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
1Cor. 2:14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

• We are not to be proud or arrogant that as believers we can see and hear truth. It is only because of the Holy Spirit we can discern truth.

  • We are not to lose heart living in the midst of a world that is turning away from the truth of God’s Word. Judgment is coming and as believers we are to warn the world so they can look to Jesus for their own salvation.

Luke 17:26 “And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man:
Luke 17:27 they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.
Luke 17:28 “It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building;
Luke 17:29 but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.
Luke 17:30 “It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.

• Believers are to continue to do the work of the Father and be filled with a peace that only comes from knowing Jesus: this same Jesus who will be returning for His own before the coming judgment on this current world, just like in the days of Noah and Lot.